Seven got a shock this morning after looking at the overnight ratings which showed a sharp and worrying fall by The X Factor on its second night out in the current series. It averaged 1.607 million national/ 969,000 metro/ 638,000 regional viewers. It’s worth noting the high proportion of regional viewers which boosted the program’s weak metro figures. It was beaten nationally and in the metros by The Voice on Nine (1.734 million national/1.247 million metro/487,000 regional viewers) and by Ten’s MasterChef Australia in the metros which had 1.442 million national/1.043 million metro/ 379,000 regional viewers (which is where MasterChef Australia is let down each night). Overall, that would had to have to be Seven’s worst night of the year so far. Only solid performances by 7TWO and 7mate stood out last night. They were one and two in the digital channels.

Seven had more viewers overall in the regions, but Nine easily won the main channels. The ABC finished third in both the metros (with ten closer up in fourth), and by a decent margin in the regionals. Seven News took an absolute whacking from Nine News on the east coast, losing by 134,000 viewers in Sydney, 133,000 in Melbourne and 77,000 in Brisbane. Nothing else worked for Seven last night and in the morning Sunrise had 294,000 viewers, Today, 293,000. The World Cup ate into the audiences of the morning programs (except News Breakfast on the ABC and News 24). The Cup final had 1.145 million national/883,000 metro/262,000 regional viewers.

Ten exhumed Family Feud from the grave last night, with former Seven personality Grant Denyer as host. It grated in the 1970’s, it bored us in the 1980’s and it turned us off in the 1990’s. It averaged 926,000 national/ 690,000 metro/ 236,000 regional viewers at 6pm, which are solid figures. But it didn’t help The Project at 6.30pm (453,000) with more than 230,000 viewers turning off, while at 7pm The Project could only manage 603,000. It did better on the first night than the repeats of Modern Family and before that The Simpsons, but let’s see how many people return tonight and next week or two before trumpeting success.

Network channel share:

Nine (30.2%)

Seven (27.4%)

ABC (18.6%)

Ten (17.4%)

SBS (6.4%)

Network main channels:

Nine (24.6%)

Seven (18.1%)

ABC1 (13.9%)

Ten (13.1%)

SBS ONE (5.6%)

Top 5 digital channels:

7TWO (5.0%)

7mate (4.3%)

GO (3.5%)

ABC2 (2.9%)

Eleven (2.2%)

Top 10 national programs:

Nine News — 1.899 million

The Voice (Nine) — 1734 million

Seven News — 1.631 million

The X Factor (Seven) — 1.607 million

Home and Away (Seven) — 1.491 million

A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.441 million

MasterChef Australia (Ten) — 1.422 million

ABC News — 1.272 million

Nine News 6.30 — 1.229 million

World Cup Final (SBS ONE) — 1.145 million

Top metro programs:

Nine News — 1.326 million

The Voice (Nine) — 1.247 million

A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.237 million

Nine News 6.30 — 1.229 million

The Voice (Nine) — 1.247 million

Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.118 million

MasterChef Australia (Ten) — 1.042 million

Losers: Seven and especially The X Factor.The first two eps of this series have so far seen a significant loss of viewers.Metro news and current affairs: